Dyslexia guidelines for students

The university's dyslexia sticker scheme is one support arrangement that a student may wish to use. You must have a formal diagnosis of dyslexia to be eligible to use the sticker system.

A dyslexia sticker alerts the tutor(s) marking your assignment to your dyslexia support needs. Tutors are encouraged to mark assessments which have a sticker attached sympathetically, by disregarding dyslexic attributes, such as errors of spelling, grammar and language, where possible. A full version of our
January 2015 university dyslexia guidance is available here.January 2015 university dyslexia guidance

Further guidance is available to staff within the UHI Toolkit. (Login using your UHI network ID and password and search for the keyword ‘dyslexia’).

A university dyslexia sticker can only be downloaded if your entitlement to do so has been agreed between you and
support services staff at your home Academic Partner. Eligible students can choose to download a dyslexia sticker independently via the university’s
additional support online system. Eligible students can also liaise with Academic Partner support services staff to download the appropriate sticker.

The eligible student is encouraged to copy the data from their sticker and insert it into the front page of their assessment. This is recommended for all submissions, including those made electronically (e.g. via Turnitin) to ensure the dyslexia sticker is clearly visible to academic staff. Please refer to our
instructions for students.

This short video explains how the eligible student can download a university dyslexia sticker, and how to copy the data into the front page of their assessment.

The sticker system does not compensate for errors in knowledge, etc., which will be penalised as normal. Any student who cannot fulfil the core requirements of their course, despite using reasonable adjustments, such as a dyslexia sticker, will be unable to complete their course successfully.

If you think you might benefit from using the sticker system, you should discuss your support needs with support services staff at your home Academic Partner in the first instance:

The sticker system is not suitable for everybody with a formal diagnosis of dyslexia and support services staff will work with you to negotiate the most appropriate support plan for you. No decision will be made without your agreement, and you must agree to each of your lecturers being informed of your dyslexia support needs, before you can use the sticker system.

We want all our students to become as independent as possible as their studies progress. Thus, we would expect you to use fewer dyslexia stickers as you develop coping strategies, refine your study skills and become a more experienced user of assistive technologies, etc. Similarly, it is unlikely that you will need to attach a sticker to every assessment you submit.

Your support plan will outline the specific circumstances in which you can use the sticker system, along with other support arrangements. You will also work with support services staff to regularly review your support plan, to ensure the use of the sticker system continues to be appropriate for you.

Existing users of the dyslexia sticker scheme can use the university's
Red Button to provide feedback.

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